3049Hrs – Gaining Strength & Thinking Ahead

First I got the dorade boxes pretty much finished. I marked their positions on the decks, cut the holes for the downpipes and then fitted them in place before epoxying the dorade boxes on.

Olivier Roux sent me an e-mail suggesting it might be a good idea to make the tops removable for access. I had though about that and will probably fit a couple of those watertight screw fit dinghy access covers later on. Cheers Olivier.

Photo shows the port box in place with a bit of weight on top to keep it in place whilst the epoxy sets.

Second job was to fabricate and fit some aluminium strengthening plates to the inside edges of the forward hatch legs where the holes for the sliders were drilled. Although there is no real strain involved here I’d looked at them and wondered if the wood would be strong enough. My general rule is that anytime I look at anything and wonder about strength then I strengthen it!

It was quite a time consuming job to drill the holes, shape the ally and then screw and epoxy them in place but now I know there will be no future problems. I was a bit generous with the epoxy but it’ll sand back nicely tomorrow.

Looking back on the last week I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made and now my thoughts are turning to next week and I’m keen to carry on the momentum. The weather forecast is pretty good so I’m thinking that it’s time to get the last coat of paint on the hulls, decks and anything else that need it. To that end I’ve ordered up some more primer, white topcoat, thinners and solvent resistant rollers.